Mike NifongDurham North Carolina District Attorney, Mike Nifong has dropped rape charges against the three lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer at a fraternity party last winter. The players still face charges of kidnapping and sexual offense.

I can’t fathom why the charges of kidnapping and sexual offense are still standing. I imagine they will eventually be dropped. Perhaps Nifong has not dropped those charges in order to use them as a bargaining chip to keep from being charged himself. Anyone following this case at all has learned that there was absolutely no evidence connecting these players with any attack upon the accuser. Even more, there was evidence that they were not involved in any kind of physical attack on her.

As a result of the accusations made against the Duke University lacrosse team, the remainder of their season was canceled and the Duke Lacrosse coach at the time of the incident, Mike Pressler lost his job.

The D.A. had trouble pinning any of the lacrosse team players with the crime at the time. They all submitted to DNA test and none was found connected to the alleged crime. After much ado, finally three players were singled out as the perpetrators of the ever changing elements of the alleged crime.

Those three players were arrested, charged and indicted. They were suspended from Duke and their families have had to spend untold amounts of money on lawyers and legal fees.

The accuser has had to be in hiding. Interestingly, Mike Nifong admits he has never even talked with her about the accusations. That leads me to wonder who the actual accuser really is.

Racial and class tensions in Durham, North Carolina escalated out of this case with protests and accusations of racism.

Mary Katherine Ham writes:

It’s Durham. It’s full of a bunch of liberal white people who love to get yelled at by black people, and a bunch of liberal black people who are happy to oblige them. This story scratched that white guilt itch soooo good, they just couldn’t let it go, even though it was pretty clear from the beginning that the story was a little off.

The national media liked the white, privileged, lax boys rape hard-working, exotic dancer, single mom story, and they ran with it, too. As a result, many lives, seasons, careers, and a successful sports program have been seriously messed with by a D.A. who couldn’t back off on the narrative, either, lest he feel the wrath at the ballot box from those whom he denied their white guilt orgy.

The network news stations are just reporting a blurb that the rape case is being dropped because the ‘victim’ has changed her story. The end. Nothing else. Nothing about the DNA results, the baby she had a couple of weeks ago, the fact there was not one shred of evidence connecting the Duke players to an attack on her. They are just reporting that she changed her story so the charges are being dropped.

Looking around the internet, I can’t help but notice a sampling of the blogs and articles that sprung up in outrage when the accusations were first made. Each of these are based on declarations of racism and accusations of indifference to the plight of two African-American women raped and mistreated by well-to-do, privileged white boys.

What I found particularly unsavory is the fact that I couldn’t find a single one of those blogs willing to exonerated the players of wrong doing. Instead, as the ‘case’ fell apart they just quit blogging about it. Actually, it appears there was no case to begin with, so there was no case to fall apart. As that became more evident the blogging slowed and finally stopped altogether.

One ends her blog with the declaration that now the accused know what it feels like to be singled out because of race and socio-economic class, etc, etc. I guess that’s that then. Lesson learned. They were guilty of being white and hiring Black dancers for a fraternity party, so they deserved whatever injustices they might have suffered during this ordeal.

It appears to me that all of the actors in this drama are victims of Mike Nifong’s political ambitions. Mike Nifong used smoke and mirrors to keep his name in the media, to win an election and who knows for what other reasons.

He did so at great expense to all of the other people involved in this case.

LaShawn Barber has comprehensive coverage of this case from the beginning.

A Blog for All notes that the sharks are circling Nifong.

Duke President Richard Brodhead calls for Nifong to step down from the case? And Nifong is begging for the media to back off? The sharks in the water are smelling blood - his blood. They’re not going to back off.


Independent Conservative has been following the case closely and has ample evidence as to why the case was flawed from the get-go.

Update: Dust My Broom has a media flashback with soundbites of the media prejudging the Duke lacrosse players for rape.

The Florida Cracker wonders if ‘I plum forgot’ or ‘I had other fish to fry’ is a is a valid defense in North Carolina for a prosecutor’s withholding of exculpatory evidence.

Others posting: Leaning Straight Up, STACLU, The Pirate’s Cove, Rhymes with Right, Outside the Beltway, Wizbang, Hot Air, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler,